2 Replies Latest reply on Dec 29, 2015 5:05 AM by Martin Seifert

    WDC in Tableau Online

    Martin Seifert
    Martin Seifert Dec 23, 2015 6:11 AM

      Hello again!

       

      After having built my first Web Data Connector I would like to publish (and use) it on Tableau Online. I am particularly interested in scheduled refreshes, uploading the extract once works fine. But any refresh will result in an error message like:

       

      com.tableausoftware.nativeapi.dll.DataSourceException: Connection to an untrusted web data connector http://... is not allowed.

      Unable to connect to the server "...". Check that the server is running and that you have access privileges to the requested database.

       

      I know there are ways to use them on Tableau Server (see Web Data Connectors in Tableau Server or WDC / Tableau Server Extract Refreshes Without Local Install ) and Tableau Public (see Announcing the Launch of Tableau Public 9.1 | Tableau Public ), but not on Tableau Online... I had contact with the Support Team and this doesn't seem to be a feature of Tableau Online. So we set up a change request and an idea (see Web Data Connector for Tableau Online ).

       

      Until either of them got implemented: Does anybody have a work-around for this?

       

      Best regards (and happy holidays!), Martin

        • 1. Re: WDC in Tableau Online
          Martin Seifert
          Martin Seifert Dec 29, 2015 4:57 AM (in response to Martin Seifert)

          Hey all!

           

          I found a work-around: Tableau Online Sync Client!

           

          Keep Your Data Fresh with Tableau Online's New Sync Client Feature | Tableau Software

           

          What this little piece of gold basically does: It runs the refresh anywhere (e.g. my Laptop) and pushes it to Tableau Online. Exactly what I was looking for to avoid the Error mentioned above...

           

          Tableau Online (as well as Tableau Server) does not allow Javascript to run for security reasons. But it does allow other Servers (or my Laptop) to run JS and then simply receive the extracted data. So all I need is a running machine which is able to receive my WDC data and run Sync Client. My setup in a nutshell:

           

          Some API with the data

            -> WDC running on my Laptop to get the data into Tableau Format (Tableau Desktop 64 bit needs to be installed)

             -> Tableau Online Client Sync scheduling automatic refreshes and sending the data to Tableau Online

           

          One note, though: This works with a self developed WDC where you can bypass the authentication. I tried Client Sync with my WDC and the Tableau-stored credentials, but then Client Sync crashes. If I hard-code the credentials into the WDC so Client Sync doesn't have to authenticate at all it works fine

           

          Thanks everyone who gave a thought into this

          • 2. Re: WDC in Tableau Online
            Martin Seifert
            Martin Seifert Dec 29, 2015 5:05 AM (in response to Martin Seifert)

            Oh, btw: I'm running both the WDC and Sync Client on my laptop because it is switched on most of the time anyway... Obviously this could run on a Windows 64 bit Server anywhere, too